Terry Fox

I'm old enough to remember the impact Terry's marathon of hope had on our country! Now it's our turn, in our small way, to keep that dream alive,.

WOW assembly winners!

Congratulations to Ophelia, Annamaria, and Aiden!! They had a great start to the year. They picked up routines quickly, had great organizational skills and really 'hit the ground running'-keep up the good work!!

LEARNING GOALS AND SUCCESS CRITERIA

 We use 'anchor charts' in the classroom to help students have a reference point for when they are unsure of a concept we have been working with. The first two pictures below highlight the Characteristics of Book Covers and Movie posters. These are both forms of text and works of media.

Once we work with these concepts in shared reading, guided reading and In their centre work, then it's time to 'show off' what they've learned. 

The third picture is of our Learning Goals and Success Criteria. This is where we discuss the skills we are expecting to demonstrate during this assignment. Along with that we go over the specific 'criteria' that they must include in order to be successful. This process ensures they have had plenty of oppurtunity to practice these concepts before we evaluate them. 

READING AND WRITING NUMBERS

Reading and writing numbers proves to be difficult for some students. They get confused once they begin to read numbers that are larger than 999. They even fair quite well into the initial thousands. Where they begin to have problems is when we start talking about numbers over 10 000. We stress that they use a place value chart as an aid to help them decode larger values.  The place value chart pictured below is organized in such a way as to highlight the PERIOD that the number falls under. Every 3 steps on the place value chart is referred to as a PERIOD. Each period has a 0nes, tens and hundreds column.

The difficult part is reading the numbers under one PERIOD as a whole. For instance, the number pictured above has 026 in the THOUSANDS PERIOD. The student reads that as twenty six thousand. If you look at the numbers in the MILLIONS PERIOD they read that as thirty one million. Some students get confused and read the numbers in a PERIOD separately. FOR INSTANCE, they may read thirty million one million. What's the solution---PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. GRADE 5's need to learn up to 999 999. GRADE 6'S NEED to read to the MILLIONS period. They also need to be able to write those numbers.

READING STRATEGIES

Throughout the course of the year we will be working on a variety of reading strategies. These strategies are there to aid us to more fully understand what we read. As adults we naturally bring our prior knowledge to bear on any new material we read. We  understand that our life experiences and previous knowledge can help inform our understanding of what we are trying to read or understand. Our goal is to get our students to be able to do that as naturally as we do. We also do this by making connections to what we are reading. If I'm reading a Hardy Boys novel I can reflect on similar books I've read. I can remember a t.v. program or movie that has similar scenarios and characters. The point is I use my prior knowledge to help me understand what I'm reading on a deeper level.
The grade 5's are reading The Garage Sale Mystery. In the story Max and Nina are investigating the disappearance of their father's guitar. As a good reader I thinks about other  similar stories they have read (prior knowledge). For example, I read a book that the detective was investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a native community. I know that these types of books have detectives that look for clues that lead to suspects. I also know that I really need to pay attention to the details the author writes because clues could be anywhere. Finally I know that sometimes writers throw in 'red herrings' to throw readers off the trail of the real culprit. That's a vast amount of knowledge about The Garage Sale Mystery before I even read a single page.
Connections are another way that we use our Prior Knowledge to improve our understanding the material we are reading. In The Garage Sale Mystery Max and Nina are holding a garage sale in order to save money for a bike and a skateboard. I remember a time when I want an Atari with Pong (dating myself!!). Well, I started delivering Pennysavers in order to save money to buy one, just like Max and Nina. I know how much I wanted that Atari and I remember how hard I had to work to get it. I missed time with friends and hanging out in order to save for the Atari. I can 'connect' to Max and Nina, I know how they felt. I know they were nervous and filled with anticipation waiting to save enough money. I know how dedicated they must be in order to give up their weekend to run the garage sale. That's the power of 'connections' -- they get you into the characters head. You can gain a deeper understanding of the characters feelings, hopes and desires. It's way to get a personal window into the characters point of view. We will be working on this throughout the course of the year.
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ANCHOR CHARTS

Anchor charts are a way for teachers and students to create large visual 'post-it notes'. We have them up in the room for students to use as  reference tools. Sometimes they describe a procedure for solving math problems. Sometimes they are a resource for remembering the characteristics of a particular type of genre. The idea is that when students need a little help remembering a process, procedure or learning strategy, then it's there at their disposal. I have posted a few examples in the blog to give parents an idea of what they look like. I will be collecting all the anchor charts, learning goal and success criteria charts (more info to follow on these) in a slide show that you can find on the class website. See below for a link to the class website.

CLASS WEBSITE

Congrats to one of our Own!

Ophelia won a writing contest last June and we get a prize as well!! Our classroom library received a box full of great books. Way to go Ophelia and thanks from all of us.